Snapshots

all pictures © 2008 Robert Sommers

RUFUS THOMAS - Walking the Dog

c. 1965

Oh the Irony...

I heard on NPR today that Christie's is having it's first punk rock memorabilia auction. Your chance to get John Lydon's safety pin or maybe Sid and Nancy's old works...
I have a few of these old handbills that I kept from the Skeleton Club in San Diego - saw the Alleycats and go-go's before they went commercial. Used to purloin lots of the visual art from the period, especially the San Francisco stuff.

I have a book that was put out in the early eighties' called Streetart that has all this cool Winston Tong and James Stark and Gary Panter punk art and the book said that this auction crap would happen one day, mockingly. And lo and behold, no future starts to appreciate, too, it's just too weird.  The aesthetic was cobbled together, irreverent and cobbled together but certainly anti-materialist and well, kinda nihilist.  The Smart Punks must have kept a few souvenirs so that they could speculate.

I guess we all cash it in sometime. Note - Still trying to find my Wendy O. Williams blow up figurine with chainsaw. Pathetic.

I just noticed that this is my 500th blog - what a watershed. Kind of crappy month for blogging - not really on my game. Thought about pulling the plug but what the hell would I do with my time? Thanks for sticking with it.

Robert

STEPPENWOLF - Sookie Sookie 1968

You asked for poorly recorded sixties music, and by god, we deliver. Bad lip synching to boot, but damn, that my friends, is an afro. John Kay was maybe the Canadian version of Jim Morrison, I saw Steppenwolf several times in my distant youth and always enjoyed them. Believe they came up with the phrase Heavy Metal (as in Heavy Metal thunder) originally. My friend Rick Griffin did a classic cover for their monster album from his epic work Man from Utopia. I have the original art seperation for the Utopia cover, but not the album cover.

Saw John Kay at street scene several years ago and he was grayer but the old wolf was still entertaining.  One of the guys like Orbison that everyone thought was blind because of the Ray Bans.

Sweet Cherry Wine

Click on the title link for a badly recorded but energetic version of Tommy James and the Shondells classic from a concert in Indio, California last month. 

 I think that the dulcet sounds and nice writing of Monsieur James are fantastic and under appreciated.  Nice to see he's still rocking.

Monday Meanderings

I think it's funny that we can spare 25 billion dollars for a no strings attached Citicorp bailout (with another 300 billion in loan guarantees) but not 25 billion for the auto industry. Yeah, flying in on their Gulfstreams was not a great p.r. move but frankly we may need a domestic auto industry someday and they really managed to help the country in World War II when they retooled and started building defense equipment. I read a good local letter by a longtime Ford designer yesterday. He pointed out that they didn't create the demand for big gas guzzlers, they were responding to the insatiable desires of the soccer moms and compensating short men for large SUV style machinery.

I have heard that the 75 dollar an hour average wage figure for the auto worker is a load of hooey as well, it's more like 28 dollars but will need to, as Reagan put it, verify. But I wonder if this resistance to a bailout isn't a way for the right to stick it to the unions as a final parting death blow? I personally hate Citicorp, they held a long time mortgage on my home and were simply detestable. Where are all the cries of socialism from the right now, with the government buying stakes in all these financial concerns?

I drove through the tony burg of Rancho Santa Fe all week on the way to the show and found myself wondering how many of these folks are cowering right now in some corner of their castles.  I imagine a lot of people thought that they had impenetrable teflon covers.  And they've now discovered that the hard rain has fallen.  I don't care how cush you think you've got it, we're all about 20 seconds and a well timed disaster from becoming utterly destitute and unmasked.

 
It looks like Obama turns out to be a real pragmatist after all, while Bush II became unmasked as the true ideologue. Gates, Scowcroft, Hagel, Leach, Geithner - the Republican names that are surfacing as potential cabinet members resonate as centrist professionals. He seems to be really rolling his sleeves up for the long fight ahead to bring our country back to solvency.

I really admire the Dalai Lama.  This week he once again preached the middle way and hoped openly for a path of conciliation with China.  I studied Mahayana Buddhism with a Tibetan Rinpoche, Kalu, for a short period in the seventies. The Dalai Lama is consistent in his message of peace and integrity through the end.  The Han Chinese look more and more brutal and repressive in their attempts to vanquish this beautiful culture.

I ended up kicking a little ass this weekend at the Antique Show I exhibited at.  I took the advice that I myself doled out to a friend last week.  I danced with the ones that got me here and gave great deals to loyal clients - made a fair profit and moved on, cutting my sticker prices but delivering a lot of value.  There is certainly a shakedown in my business and yours right now but if you treat people well they will remember and just might keep you alive someday.

I may not have mentioned this on the blog before but I am a long time cancer survivor.  I started peeing blood one day in 1985 and ended up having the majority of my left kidney removed due to a hellacious tumor. Then we found a multitude of tumors in my bladder and ureter.  I had at least four successive operations to remove them from what my urologist termed my "angry" bladder.  I was sign painting at the time and was exposed to a lot of toxic chemicals.  They called my type of bladder cancer "painter's cancer" and I have endeavored to limit my exposure to toxins in the last couple decades since.

I eventually became part of one of the first BCG study groups at UCSD.  I met Dr. Sheldon Hendler and started an experimental regimen.  I went to the Bio Med library at the University and researched every arcane study in the world.  Next stop was West Germany for Thymusin from 14 week old cows but we luckily found the right combinations. I went to Mexico and smuggled in a still banned drug I heard about, whose name somehow escapes me but something like isoprinosine. I started getting regular lymphocyte enumeration panels from Specialty Labs so that I could chart my own T-cell progress.  My counts went from the low hundreds to the thousands in a matter of months and I recovered.

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin is an inoculated tuberculin vaccine that has proven to awake the bodies immune system and fight cancer and it worked for me.  It seemed to do the trick and I have had no further problems these many years.  I try to talk to cancer patients when I can and give them the benefits of my little wisdom and experience.  One thing that I learned is that a cancer patient (or anyone seriously ill for that matter) makes up two lists, the people that should have been there and weren't and the wonderful people who showed up out of nowhere for you.  And I had to fire some people from my life.

And as most of you know, I had heart valve problems that required surgery two years ago as well atril fibrillation problems and fun things like Amorosos Fujax and a little pesky heart attack this year.  Things have been going along ok.

Until Saturday, when in the midst of the show, I started pissing buckets of blood.  Not just blood but thick obstructive clots and dried blood.  All day and all night.  Literally gallons, like I was shedding an organ or something. Didn't, couldn't sleep. I called my urologist and he thinks I may have some coumadin toxicity from the drug that's regulating my coagulation.  I have had occipital swelling and headaches all week, have an attractive green pallor and now a major pain in my left side.  I will be going in for a cystoscopy next week and have chosen to back off both the rat poison and the aspirin.  It is possible that long term coumadin use can affect the bladder lining - I have my fingers crossed.  

So this is more info than anyone needs but that's what I did on my weekend, made major ducats and pissed blood.  Hope that yours was swell as well.

Robert 

Function at the Injunction

http://nctimes.com/articles/2008/11/22/news/inland/fallbrook/zda5af760affe8fab8825750600729f54.txt

...interesting and thoughtful article in this past Saturday's North County Times regarding the pros and cons of a possible legal injunction here in Fallbrook to counter the perceived threat of our very own Latino gang (FVL i think they call themselves), estimated membership about 50...personally i find such a step troublesome, the prospect of racial profiling disturbs me... all in all i find Mr. Favela's arguments more compelling than Ms. Braendel's- better to find a way to get the hispanic community involved in solving the problem, along with the sheriffls dept, instead of the heavy handed injunction approach...better still, brush up on your high school Spanish and speak it with those who are still struggling with their English, a simple buenos dias, como esta? goes a long ways, they really appreciate it, don't be afraid to make mistakes- by combining the two languages, we can communicate...it's not us against them, it's all us, we're all in the same boat...

One Hit Wonders

i got to thinking about "one hit wonders" today, songs by artists who never had another hit, of course there is a website devoted to this topic:

http://www.onehitwondercentral.com/

anyways i checked it out, under songs from the 60's quite a few i wasn't familiar with, here are the ones that stood out for me, though:

"I Remember You"/Frank Ifield/ 1962
"Everyone's Gone to the Moon"/Jonathan King/1965
"A Walk in the Black Forest"/ Horst Jankowski/1965
"Walkin' My Cat Named Dog"/ Norma Tanega/1966
"Let it Out(Let it All Hang Out)"/ The Hombres/1967
"MacArthur Park"/ Richard Harris/1968
"Harper Valley PTA"/ Jeannie C. Riley/1968
"Something In the Air"/ Thunderclap Newman/1969

Nina Simone

Surviving the Nuclear Winter

I am a sitting at the Del Mar Fair, trying to hook a bass or a trout. Or a customer, maybe. Times are bleak and I don't think I will make the booth rent. But many of my peers are in the same spot. And I got my wireless card this morning so I can write my blog. Can't be too far from the cyber tether, can we?

I have a business associate that is loading everything up on ebay buy it now for pennies on the dollar. I was making fun of his panic attack last week. Now I'm not sure if the choking sound won't soon be emanating from my own gullet.

I have been accused of not being a happy blogger and been implored to write more feel good stuff but think it will have to wait for another day.

Zounds - I just sold a painting, hot damn! Can't be depressed - gotta run...Blog will have to wait until another day.

i dreamed i saw cheap gasoline

click on this link, if you dare, it will take you to an online book by the name of Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted, by one Gustavus Hindman Miller (i love this name), copyright 1931, wherein you can at long last unlock what those movies in your head are actually trying to tell you, example: under "gasoline" the author asserts that "to dream of gasoline denotes you have a competency coming to you through a struggling source" (huh?), similar entries can be found for "hemp seed", "tapeworm", "tarantula", and so on and so forth...thank you and good night.

Tennessee Ernie Ford - Kissing Bug Boogie

Jorma Kaukonen, David Bromberg: I Am The Light Of This World

Great Rev. Gary Davis song.

Sommers Bible Study

I was writing the other day about judging others and recited some biblical verse I vaguely remembered about "coming as a witness and not as a judge" and Grumpy called me on it. Wasn't familiar with it but said that it might have been John the Baptist. I pulled the Ryrie Study Bible off the shelf and went hunting and guess what - it doesn't exist. Could not find any scripture even close. And I thought "but it sounded so damn good - gee maybe I have a talent for this" - swear I read it somewhere...

Anyway my fingers started wandering through the Colossians and John and in the natural right to left direction ended up in Leviticus or some such place and I read a passage where a biblical law is set forth that you can't grow two different kinds of seeds in a field. And I thought holy heck, not wanting to blaspheme in front of the good book, gardeners everywhere are screwed! And crop rotation has proven so good for the soil. Drat!

Then I read where you can't, according to biblical precepts, mix wool and linen in clothing and thought "there goes the garment industry, too".

I started reading about the kind of lawbreaking that could get you stoned and not in a good way, and thought "these damn hebrews sure are a bloodthirsty lot." And lets not even go into "spilling one's seed upon the ground" because if its punishable by death this earth is going to be one lonely place.

The rules are set forth thusly:

The Torah of the Jews, which is contained in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible and as such serves as a common religious reference, prescribes death by stoning for a long series of offenses, namely:

* Touching Mount Sinai while God was giving Moses the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:13)
* An ox that gores someone to death should be stoned (Exodus 21:28)
* Breaking the Shabbat (Numbers 15:32-36)
* Giving one's "seed" (presumably one's offspring) "to Molech" (Leviticus 20:2-5)
* Having a "familiar spirit" (or being a necromancer) or being a "wizard" (Lev. 20:27)
* Cursing God (Lev. 24:10-16)
* Engaging in idolatry (Deuteronomy 17:2-7) or seducing others to do so (Deut. 13:7-12)
* "Rebellion" against parents (Deut. 21,21)
* Getting married as though a virgin, when not a virgin (Deut. 22:13-21)
* Sexual intercourse between a man and a woman engaged to another man (both should be stoned, Deut. 22:23-24)

Mishna

The Mishna gives the following list of persons who should be stoned (Sanhedrin Chapter 7, p. 53a [2])

* A man who has sexual intercourse with one of the following (see Lev. 20, which however does not specify the form of execution):

his mother
his father's wife
his daughter-in-law
another man
an animal ("bestiality")

* A woman who allows an animal to have sexual intercourse with her
* A blasphemer
* An idolater
* One who gives his seed to Molech
* A necromancer or wizard
* One who desecrates the sabbath
* One who curses his father and mother
* One who has sexual intercourse with a betrothed maiden
* One who incites or instigates (toward idolatry)
* A sorcerer
* A wayward and rebellious son


Some of the other rules with harsh punishment were also edifying. If your wife or girlfriend tries to help you in a fight, if you want to be old testament square, you must cut her hand off. Yes it will hurt, but take comfort in your obeisance to the almighty. There will be major points in the hereafter.

By the way, we know that eating shrimp and Oysters Rockefeller is forbidden, but did you know that eating locusts is not only permitted but an old testament delicacy. Yuck!

And don't let cattle graze with other kinds of cattle (Leviticus 19:19)

People who have flat noses, or are blind or lame, cannot go to an altar of God (Leviticus 21:17-18)

Anyone who dreams or prophesizes anything that is against God, or anyone who tries to turn you from God, is to be put to death. (Deuteronomy 13:5)

If anyone, even your own family suggests worshipping another God, kill them. (Deuteronomy 13:6-10)

If you find out a city worships a different god, destroy the city and kill all of it's inhabitants... even the animals. (Deuteronomy 13:12-15)

Kill anyone with a different religion. (Deuteronomy 17:2-7)

God commanded his people to observe three annual festivals — and they weren’t Easter, Labor Day and Christmas (Exodus 23:14). They were the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering (verses 15-16). He commanded all men to appear before him at a designated site in the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 16:16). He told his people to make shelters out of tree branches and live in them for a week (Leviticus 23:39-43).

Do not mate different kinds of animals. Now what kind of sickos started trying these experiments?

Anyway all I can say is it's a good thing that Jesus came along because these people were way too tough and put the capitol G in guilt.

I talked to my brother in Spokane yesterday and he said that I was starting to sound like a republican, which really does worry me, and that my blog was okay but a little too zionist. And I don't know where that came from. But I will surely watch both behavior patterns carefully in the future. And try not to judge. I'm slightly dyslexic, dog is my witness.

Hot Tuna w/ Grace Slick - Third Week in the Chelsea

Back to School

I took an intaglio, aquatint class from my friend and printmaker N. Dixon Fish this weekend at the Fallbrook School of the Arts. This was a two day class, and my first one in a little over 25 years. I thought that it would be fun and it was and since I sell a lot of prints and especially like aquatints, it gave me a new understanding of my material.

The method I used for making the aquatint pictured above went something like this. I started with an image I took of the roofline of John Fillmore's house in Santa Fe. I made a drawing in reverse and then used carbon paper to transfer the image to a zinc plate. I selectively covered the white areas with asphaltum and used spray paint to cover other toned areas in various gradations. After each step, the plate went into a nitric acid bath and I swept the plate with a feather. I used an etching tool and added some engraving along the way. I inked the plate, rubbed it with a tarlatan cloth, polished with a page from the phone book and then pulled impressions on the press.

All went swimmingly along until the eighth pull, when something terribly wrong happened to the emulsion layer and I lost a lot of contrast and detail, depressingly. I am going to try again one of these days with a new plate. It will take a while to figure out the tricks and idiosyncrasies of the media.

My favorite aquatint artist are Charles "Chili" Capps, Gene Kloss and Doel Reed. I hope one day to discover their secrets for making such beautiful prints!

But it was fun while it lasted - and I humbly post a picture of one of the intermediate pulls.

Hate the stupid.

Twenty thousand supporters of gay rights showed up in San Diego this weekend to march in the wake of the passage of Proposition 8. I was astounded by the number of people. I was not one of them. There has been a heavy backlash against the Catholic and Mormon Church for months for their support of the bill. Doug Manchester's Hyatt Hotel and Hoehn Motors in Carlsbad are two businesses that have been targeted for their principal's large donations to the campaign.

I personally think that all marriage should be illegal. It is statistically proven that it is the leading contributor to divorce. Or at least as John Cleese says, make it like a dog license, renewable every five years unless there are children around. It has certainly destroyed a lot of great relationships. I know that crane's mate for life but its a little tougher for homo sapiens.

The culture war is definitely back on and I would like to pull off a few scabs if I may. I was talking to a mormon friend the other day about the gay marriage thing and said that I didn't have a problem with it, why shouldn't they be as miserable as the rest of us, (it's a joke honey, okay)? We got through the bullshit and down to brass tacks and he said "Robert, do you know what those people do after dark?" Did I know about the tremendous violence inherent in gay relationships? No, I did not and I think frankly that it is a load of crap.  Promiscuous yes, violent no. I pointed out that the majority of pedophiliac incidents are opposite sex oriented and that most of my gay couple friends' relationships lasted longer or certainly as long as my straight couple friends. And the domestic violence statistics among heteros are nothing to crow about.

The interesting thing is that he wasn't against gay marriage, he was against gays themselves, and a behavior that he felt was abhorrent. Now there are many gay mormons, ex or current that would probably differ with his feelings but I think that they are widely prevalent. I find it interesting that when randy liberals stray it is most often with members of the opposite sex, when conservative congressman's peccadilloes are uncovered, it tends to be some torpid gay thing. Can you spell repression and denial? Proposition 8 passed because it's proponents superbly sold the case that elementary schools would be used as incubators in order to educate young children about the great joy of gay love.This false canard awoke terror in every homophobe's breast and doomed the opposition.

There are a bunch of anecdotal stories out about racial incidents popping up post election, mostly in the south. Still the same old south, except for Northern Virginia, which is now apparently, well, north. White people are worried that blacks will get uppity and lord over them now that they have the upper hand. And I'm thinking, you mean show the same behavior that you have shown them? Isn't payback a bitch?

Do you remember when Bush gave tax breaks to the racist Bob Jones University? This administration has helped perpetuate an environment where it was intolerant to hate intolerance. Where federal funds could be used by companies and creeds that practiced discrimination because of their religious beliefs. This will be a difficult web to untangle. But rest assured that if your company, church or synagogue helps foster hatred, it is my right to boycott and protest and I hope it hits you square in the wallet. You have a right to your beliefs, both personal and religious, as do I, but when they infringe on my space and we don't have an agreement, I would appreciate you taking them elsewhere.

So we are back to old paradigms, that stubbornly refuse to shift. But now an extremely intelligent uberblack president to give the thing a unique twist. Conservatives and Republicans will grit their teeth and wait for an opportunity to lash out for the first failure of the new administration and hope that they can reclaim their mantle on the next pendulum swing. We do not have the capacity to speak to each other civilly any longer, let alone have understanding or empathy for each other's positions.

I hope that Barack Hussein Obama is up to the task ahead because it is an extraordinary and difficult time and it is going to take an extraordinary leader to extricate us from our dilemma.

Taj Mahal - Corinna

Save Detroit?

I was a little amused reading the WSJ last night. Republican lawmakers are apparently ready to draw a fault line and not bail out the American Auto Industry. Now I have heard cogent arguments yea and nay on this and I don't actually have an opinion one way or the other. Yes, Detroit has buried it's head in the sand for the last thirty years, we have worsened the fuel efficiency and mpg of our cars, they build ugly, crappy product that doesn't seem to have the care and craftsmanship of their competitors. (I drive a Chrysler Town and Country by the way and it's just fine.)

Some democratic lawmakers want to save the U.S. auto industry because of the horrific effect on labor in MIchigan and elsewhere if it was to tank. I wonder if providing jobs for an industry that has shot itself in the foot so many times is smart or even "american". A part of me says die already, we don't dole out jobs and subsidies to keep people busy. Sink or swim. But a failure of the big three would be as least as catastrophic to our economy as a failure at AIG.

The thing that I think is funny about the whole thing, that as I stated previously, even amuses me, is that the conservatives can be so pious about not extending the bailouts. Hey memo guys, you're not virgins anymore, you can't stuff that genie back in the bottle. You gave a largely unsupervised gift to the banking industry but god forbid you should do anything for the american worker. Now that's socialism, isn't it?

Michael Jordan gets schooled by an old balding CEO

Ride Captain Ride (The Blues Image)

The Carpenters 1973 visit to the Nixon White House

Good clean American youth, not like that nasty Grace Slick*, trying to dose the White House punchbowl with LSD. Karen was a hell of a drummer - she could actually rip - Buddy Rich, no less, said that she was one of his favorite drummers. I think the prez had a slight buzz on.

*Slick and Tricia Nixon, former President Richard Nixon's daughter, are both alumni of Finch College. Grace was invited to a tea party for the alumni at the White House in 1969. She invited the political activist Abbie Hoffman to be her escort, and planned to spike President Richard Nixon's tea with LSD. The plan was thwarted when they were prevented from entering after being recognized by White House security personnel.

Nixon with Prescott Bush, W's quirky* grandpa.

* Quirky as in Hitler supporter who attempted to stage a coup here in World War II. See my April blog here.

Jimi Hendrix - 2/24/69 Royal Albert Hall

Mitch Mitchell was my favorite sixties drummer. A tasmanian devil, whirling dervish powerhouse with the sticks, I personally dug him more than Keith Moon, Bonham, Baker, Watts. Amazing that the lone trio could put so much thick music out. He was a vital part of their sonic appeal. A devotee of jazz and an admirer of Elvin Jones, he could swing as well. My friend Stan, who was a road manager that knew all these guys, said that Jimi really never told them what to play, they just blazed right out of the gate. Now all three members have left this time signature.

Peace.

(1947-2008)

Stegosaurus Republicanus

Barack Obama is getting a lot of free advice these days from the Republican Party and their minions. The Slime, aka foot fetishist Dick Morris, thinks that hiring Rahm Emmanuel was too confrontational and a bad move. Michael Gerson doesn't want him to over reach. John Boehner is gnashing his teeth and girding for war. David Brooks says, think broadly. The Wall Street Journal said that the President Elect would send a bad sign to an energy starved America by rescinding Bush's last second gift to the oil companies vis a vis the Utah land rape.


Obama has all these new friends who want to give him gratuitous advice about governing from the center - hey dickwads, you lost - get over it - you're not in power anymore - you crammed it down our throats from the most right wing point on the spectrum but now you want to have it your way... Ya'll get the news? - you fellas have done been repudiated. And stick this center right shit - it's a country that embraces the center, not the center right, as you have now discovered with utmost chagrin. I am sure that the President Elect will get in touch with you when and if he needs your advice.  And don't be too concerned.  Liberals will be far more considerate in regards to your policies than you have ever been in the last eight years towards ours.

I think that the collapse/bailout is the new Hurricane Katrina for the Bush Administration. Soon, all the funds will be gone and nothing will have been accomplished except to fatten up the few surviving banks. I used to read a great magazine in the seventies called Coevolution Quarterly. I remember that one edition had an article about starting a new business. It said that the worst thing that could happen to an inchoate startup was to be overcapitalized in the first year because you would piss away money on things that were not really necessary. I feel that this bail out will have a similar outcome. Hope that I am wrong.

Obama was a marxist last week, now according to a freshman congressman from Georgia, he's actually a National Socialist. He's also a fascist too as well as a muslim, according to some brilliant e-mails I have received. Why don't you Einstein's crack open a history book or two and see what these terms you bandy about actually mean? Franco - fascist, Marx - communist (Karl, not Groucho). Hard to be both at the same time but I guess it has happened a few times.

I thought that Hillary had a monopoly on the uneducated white voter, but guess that the GOP has plenty of them as well. Like all the guys who are now hurrying to buy guns because of Obama's super secret plans to take them all away. Or his plans for a secret police force that only answers to him. You know, after he institutes sharia in this country. And project X, of course.

It might get a little uncomfortable for you people in the months and years ahead. Especially you people in the south that don't want a black man "over you" or getting aggressive with the white folk. But I wouldn't worry - he's a hell of a lot smarter than you are.

The Supreme Court just announced that the Navy could go ahead and blast sonar that will potentially deafen whales and dolphins. This underscores the importance of Obama's victory.  Chief Justice John Roberts impressed everyone concerned with his facile grasp of analytic geometry and trigonometry.

"The Navy had agreed to shut down its sonar if marine mammals were sighted within 200 yards. The appeals court’s requirement that it increase the zone to 2,200 yards", Chief Justice Roberts said, “would expand the surface area of the shutdown zone by a factor of over 100” given “the exponential relationship between radius length and surface area.” “Area = pi r squared,” the chief justice explained, using the Greek symbol for pi and a superscript to indicate the squaring of a number. He also discounted the appeals court’s conclusion that the rarity of the temperature condition, “surface ducting,” made restrictions on sonar use acceptable. A quick poll of those present quickly established that no one knew what the hell he was talking about.

He also said that there could conceivably be instances where the rights of animals would not be subordinate to those of humans, he just couldn't think of any. Antonin Scalia, a proponent of originalism, could find no reference to whales, dolphins or large scale pelagics in the constitution and considered the matter moot. Clarence Thomas, in dissent, favored a complete annihilation of all living sea creatures.  

We start teaching them early in Palestine...

Bovine Casualty and Loan

You can have your Franklin Raines, Freddie Mac's, entitlements, even your earmarked Bridges to Nowhere. For my money, if you want a real bogeyman for the economic collapse, read this excellent article in the New York Times, How the Thundering Herd Faltered and Fell, by Gretchen Morgenson.

It chronicles the rise of synthetic credit swaps and the raw greed and inane stupidity that caused our current crisis. It should serve as a signpost for the real need for future regulation and oversight in our financial markets. The idea for these instruments was launched at J.P. Morgan but they were too smart to drink their own kool-aid and ended up peddling the crap to Merrill Lynch, keeping all the good preferred senior paper for themselves.

Who was supposed to be watching? Have we learned anything? Want to bet?

A Message from the Pointer Sisters

Six days upon the road and I won't see my baby tonight

I am in a little cow town in the central valley of California, midway back from my trip up north. I will come back to an empty house as Leslie has traveled to Florida to help out an elderly aunt. Sad for me as I miss her after being gone so long.

Well the house isn't totally empty - we do have two kittens that I am sure are tearing the place up in their first two days of independence. It's going to smell great too, I am sure.

I have been indulging in a little post election post mortem and offer a few thoughts. The country is reverting back to a demographic shift like we had in the sixties, north/south, religious/nonreligious. And you know the true southern religion - football. This from today's a.p.:

2 dead in argument over Ala.-LSU football game

1 hour ago

EVERGREEN, Ala. (AP) — Authorities say an argument over Saturday's Alabama-LSU football game led to the shooting deaths of a couple at a home in southern Alabama.

Prosecutors identified the victims as Dennis and Donna Smith of Brewton. The shooting happened about 7 p.m. Saturday at the home of Michael Williams in the rural community of Owassa.

Williams was arrested and charged with two counts of murder.

Investigators told the Press-Register newspaper in Mobile that Dennis Smith, an LSU fan, called Williams, an Alabama fan, after Alabama's 27-21 overtime win and an argument ensued.

The Smiths went to Williams home. Investigators said Smith had a pistol and Williams had a shotgun and fired. Donna Smith was a relative of Williams' girlfriend. 


I read the other day that they passed a law in Arkansas last week that only a married man and woman could adopt a child.  Now the intended purpose was to not have children adopted by godless homosexuals.  The problem is, there are three times as many orphans in Arkansas as willing families and this law is going to hurt these kids, who can not be adopted by unmarried heterosexuals either.  So much for family values.  The love stops when the water breaks, I guess.


So I will go have my Holiday Inn Express deluxe breakfast and get back to it for the next six hours. Hope everyone has a great week. I need a haircut and a shave.

Strange Mormon cartoon

A lot of people are picking on the latter day saints right now over the prop 8 - gay issues. I don't put this up to pile on, I just like the science fiction qualities it shares with pretty much every other religion, including my native tribe. Kind of has a baby Jorel comes to earth superman quality. Like god telling Abraham to kill his kid. Today thankfully we usually lock those people up. Might have been made by some christian backers of an equally ridiculous theology. I don't get religion. Anyhow, don't know if this is depiction of Mormon canon is accurate but it's a little bizarre, and in that spirit I blog, so here goes.

shot and spent

I don't know if anyone else is feeling it but the post election hangover is definitely on. After a year of teeth gnashing and rabid screaming, it's evidently time to have a glass of warm milk and play nice. Ain't a lot of energy left in the tank. The administration is going to see how much they can deliver to big business (or at least the big business that has managed to survive) in the last month of it's tenure and someone will hopefully pick up the pieces and broken parts.

Unfortunately we lost another 240,000 jobs in October and that giant sucking sound is the American economy spiraling down the porcelain vortex. I am feeling it, lawdy, lawdy, oh yeah at this show in San Francisco. My previously impenetrable perch is now teetering with full view of the abyss on the horizon line - but I've been there before and will suck it up and make it work thanks to some very dear loyal clients and customers. Thank you.

Any way, my bellicosity meter should be muted for a while, more cute animal stories, music and filler. Maybe back to writing some more fiction or mosaic fiction on the blog. We left the last one in some bleak outpost in the middle of the god forsaken desert and I don't think that they can be rescued but that's what happens when you grind your sausage in a public venue.

Fillmore tells me that there's already an Impeach Obama web site...So much for the honeymoon. I had an interesting conversation with a right wing buddy in Arizona who told me that it was his opinion that the left was harder on Bush than they were on Clinton. I disagree - seem to remember continuing investigation, Ken Starr, Whitewater, Monica, etc., etc.. It did seem that that anger was more of a manufacture by the GOP and talk radio than the anti Bush ire, which seemed more organic and populist if that makes any sense? Guess it's all about whose ox is getting gored.

Anyway less politics, more feel good and lets all stay out of the breadlines.

Robert

Can't feel the love?

Well it's the second day in pre-office for the President-elect and he still hasn't gotten us out of our economic morass... Left wing bastard.  I listened to his acceptance speech with a measure of optimism for bipartisanship in the task of moving forward together in this country.

After listening to Hannity, Limbaugh and their ilk yesterday, I have tempered my hope.  My guess is that the next four years will be as nasty as ever.  Because people on the fringe can not move to the center without endangering their own power bases.  Probably a case of personal economics.

My right wing bud Millard F. was going off yesterday about Robert Kennedy not criticizing Diebold now?  There are a lot of bruised feelings and I doubt that they will abate. Once your head has felt the crown - doesn't feel quite right to be working back in the scullery.

 

Get used to it.

Pax Reprise

Melanie - Beautiful People

The gingham dog and the calico cat
Side by side on the table sat;
'Twas half-past twelve, and (what do you think!)
Nor one nor t'other had slept a wink!
The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate
Appeared to know as sure as fate
There was going to be a terrible spat.

(I wasn't there; I simply state
What was told to me by the Chinese plate!)

The gingham dog went "bow-wow-wow!"
And the calico cat replied "mee-ow!"
The air was littered, an hour or so,
With bits of gingham and calico,
While the old Dutch clock in the chimney-place
Up with its hands before its face,
For it always dreaded a family row!

(Never mind: I'm only telling you
What the old Dutch clock declares is true!)

The Chinese plate looked very blue,
And wailed, "Oh, dear! what shall we do!"
But the gingham dog and calico cat
Wallowed this way and tumbled that,
Employing every tooth and claw
In the awfullest way you ever saw-
And, oh! how the gingham and calico flew!

(Don't fancy I exaggerate-
I got my news from the Chinese plate!)

Next morning where the two had sat
They found no trace of the dog or cat;
And some folks think unto this day
That burglars stole that pair away!
But the truth about the cat and pup
Is this: they ate each other up!
Now what do you really think of that!

(The old Dutch clock it told me so,
And that is how I came to know.)

Eugene Field

Curiouser and Curiouser

Bill Siegel at the National Review vents his spleen in a new article that makes the case that Barack Obama as President will be nothing more than a third term of the Bush Administration. There are a million holes in his quite lengthy argument, but it is well written and I think indicative of both the current state of the Republican Party and the antipathy that they hold for the current Chief Executive. Very angry. Now you know how we feel - but isn't it considered quite crass to start bemoaning the character of the corpse while the body is still warm?

A section from the piece:

...Axelrod’s ceaseless refrain of “McCain is a third Bush term” has been Obama’s “go to” attack. Democrats have been led to believe that after this election, no longer will we Americans (much less our highly valued allies who have had to suffer right along with us) have to put up with a president who came into office without relevant experience. One who had used drugs and alcohol more than experimentally and who only came to find God later in life. One who spends an inordinate amount of time exercising and vacationing. One who has had lifelong psychological issues concerning his father. One who is so stubborn and inflexible that he is unwilling to admit his mistakes. Nor will we have to live with a president so naïve about the world. One forced to select an aged and “experienced” running mate to lend his ticket gravitas. Worse yet, one who believes people worldwide yearn for liberty and would foolishly make that yearning a cornerstone of U.S. policy. Nor will we have to put up with a leader who would take his eye off the ball in one war to go fight another one of choice elsewhere. We won’t have to put up with a president who is choreographed by a behind-the-scenes wizard of presumed “evil” intent — one who measures what the public can be sold and how to play on their fears for maximum advantage. No more propping up an obviously unqualified candidate to serve the agenda of the powerful.

Unless, of course, Obama wins.




Sayonara, GOP

Cartoon Question

My friend Kirk sent this in today:



Now it is a real legitimate question and grievance. Americans are a bit squeamish about "spreading the wealth around." I think that Obama totally went back on his word in terms of campaign financing. (He pledged to accept public financing if McCain did.) Yes, politicians prevaricate all the time but what's next? I support him but am noting a strike call on this one. We need to be honest across the board.

But my answer to Kirk is, we take money from the American taxpayer, give it to a few select banks and insurance companies so that they can devour their competition, subsidize failing Wall Street companies so that they can pay their overpriced executives exorbitant salaries and bonuses and host expensive junkets at the Montage, but ask them nicely to please loan the money out. Which example is socialism?

Heavy helping of cheese - Sha La La La La - The Walkers

Let's see, mix two parts baccardi and a handful of phenobarbitol in a tall glass, swill in a single gulp and then hit yourself in the back of the head with a Vaughn hammer.

Enjoy the ride.

Cheney 08, it's still not too late...

Well this long standing battle for America's soul is almost over and a few final points are in order. WHAT THE HELL ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH OUR LIVES? Actually people say this thing has gone on for ever but it seems to be almost too quick to me. Maybe it's because I don't have a television.




People I have talked to recently have bemoaned the lack of a suitable candidate and I say what the hell, what do you want, Mother Theresa? I think that both of these guys are fine people and excellent public servants and that either way it goes would be a dramatic improvement on the current regime. Can you imagine the scrutiny they are under where every fart you have ever cut in your life goes under the microscope?



I have been checking out political yard signs in town and would like to offer an observation. Republican's yards are cleaner, almost obsessively so. Maybe their intense need for order leads them to the conservative side of the force. Lib's yards like mine tend to have unruly bushes and look more chaotic. Tidy democracies can be quite strangulating.

I have got a ton of emails on the Fallbrook Tattler, my nascent hometown broadside. Many of you want to contribute to future issues. Thank you. We will see. Newspaper circulation and reading in general is down and I don't want to jump in at the wrong time. I got this e-mail from the actual editor of the hometown paper and would like to share it with you as well as my response:

Great. Now I've got competition. Holy smokes.

A couple of little corrections... I'll forgive you because you are just getting your real start in your journalism career.

#1 Your suicide jump needs to be off a building 3 stories high or less (just ask the
Fallbrook Community Planning Group) - unless you took a trip and jumped elsewhere.
#2 A Pomeranian? I can picture him gnawing on a Jack Russell terrier. More meat; less
fluff.
#3 And Myrtle Kravitz is 69. She just wants you to think she's younger.


Deb

Madame Editor - Thank you for the wise tips of a seasoned pro - however a few clarifications:

Yes I had to reach into my photographer's bag o' tricks for the special effects on Sommers plunge to perdition. With the lack of tall structures in Fallbrook, I felt it would create a bit more drama than a leap off the facade at Pedro's Tacos.

I stand corrected on the canine in question - don't think he was interested in a meal so much as a little obedience training.

This is not that Myrtle Kravitz. This Myrtle Kravitz started life here as highly decorated Gunnery Sergeant Max Kravitz, an unfortunate soul who discovered his inner female somewhere along the way and went for the full clip.

thanks again for your keen observations.

R.